Our obsession with exam ranks is producing degree-holders who dump garbage in rivers—proving education has failed to build civic or environmental sense
Waseem Akhter Dar
In recent years, our collective understanding of “education” has become dangerously narrow. For many families, schools and even policymakers, education today is increasingly measured by one yardstick alone, competitive examinations like NEET. While producing doctors, engineers, and professionals is undeniably important for any society, an uncomfortable question confronts us: Are we educating our children only to clear exams, or are we educating them to live responsibly within society?
Why only NEET, and what about NEAT, not as an exam, but as a way of life?
Step outside our homes, schools or markets, and the answer stares us in the face. Garbage dumped near water bodies, plastic choking streams, waste thrown in old orchards, piles of refuse along roadsides and public places, all this exists not because people are uneducated, but because they are unconscious. Degrees have increased, but civic sense has declined.
True education is not confined to classrooms or coaching centres. It is reflected in behaviour how a child treats public property, respects nature, uses resources and understands community responsibility. A child who can memorise biology textbooks but casually throws waste into a river has learned facts, not values.
We proudly celebrate toppers and rank holders, but seldom ask whether our education system is producing responsible citizens. Clean surroundings are not the job of municipal workers alone; they are the collective responsibility of every individual. This sense of ownership must be taught early at home, in schools and reinforced by society.
The dumping of garbage near water bodies is not just an eyesore; it is a slow poison. It contaminates drinking water, destroys aquatic life, spreads diseases and permanently damages ecosystems. Old orchards, once symbols of harmony between humans and nature, are now turning into dumping grounds. Future generations will inherit not lush landscapes, but landfills.
Ironically, many of those contributing to this degradation are well-educated by conventional standards. This exposes a glaring gap in our education system, the absence of strong environmental ethics and civic responsibility.
Schools must go beyond token cleanliness drives and integrate environmental education into daily practice. Practical lessons, cleaning school premises, adopting nearby parks or streams, understanding waste management, can leave deeper impressions than lectures alone.
Parents, too, have a crucial role. Children imitate what they see. A parent who throws waste from a car window cannot expect the child to grow into an environmentally responsible citizen.
The question we must ask ourselves is urgent: When will we introspect? When does our water become undrinkable? When do diseases become rampant? When our natural heritage is reduced to photographs and memories?
Education that ignores cleanliness, civic sense and environmental responsibility is incomplete. Producing doctors who treat diseases but citizens who create unhealthy surroundings is a tragic contradiction.
Let us broaden our definition of success. Alongside NEET ranks, let us value NEAT surroundings. Alongside academic excellence, let us nurture ethical awareness. Only then can we hope to build not just a qualified generation, but a conscious one, a generation that understands that a clean environment is not a favour to nature, but a duty to humanity.
If we fail to act now, the cost will be borne by our children, the very ones we claim to educate for a better future.
The writer is a Librarian at the Department of School Education
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